Steve Kaufmann
Polyglot who speaks twenty languages and co-founded LingQ; argues that comprehensible input, not study, is what does the work.
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What they believe
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He reached the conclusion that input drives language acquisition on his own, before meeting the research that says so.
I came to the same conclusions independently before I encountered Krashen's work, and decades of learning across 20+ languages have only reinforced them. The research supports the intuition: input is where acquisition happens.
blog.thelinguist.comby 20 Jul 2026This on korrents
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Learning a language happens through exposure to language you can mostly understand; classroom drills feel productive and build nothing.
Classroom activities like grammar drills and vocabulary tests feel productive. You are doing something. But none of it builds the network your brain actually needs.
blog.thelinguist.comSaid 13 Apr 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
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From one piece Comprehensible Input: How It Helps Language Learning 5 beliefs · blog.thelinguist.com
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korrents.com
Past the beginning, learn from whatever you actually care about rather than from material written for learners.Their words
Don’t limit yourself to material designed for language learners. Read and listen to content that you genuinely care about.
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korrents.com
A beginner cannot learn from material made for native speakers: at the start, authentic media is noise.Their words
If you are starting a language completely from scratch, authentic media is just noise. You’ll absorb very little. You need highly repetitive, simple input.
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korrents.com
Learning from input does not mean refusing grammar books; the point is to notice patterns, not to master the rules.Their words
Some people think CI means you reject grammar books. I disagree. I often reference grammar materials and find these explanations useful. However, the focus of my learning is not to “master the rules”. Grammar resources simply help me notice and make sense of patterns in the language.
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Their words
Sure, language classes can provide social benefits and feedback. But the real means of learning a language is consistent, ample amounts of listening and reading.
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Their words
I came to the same conclusions independently before I encountered Krashen's work, and decades of learning across 20+ languages have only reinforced them. The research supports the intuition: input is where acquisition happens.
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Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 8 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
He reached the conclusion that input drives language acquisition on his own, before meeting the research that says so.
I came to the same conclusions independently before I encountered Krashen's work, and decades of learning across 20+ languages have only reinforced them. The research supports the intuition: input is where acquisition happens.
Comprehensible Input: How It Helps Language Learning by 20 Jul 2026
Language classes are worth something for the company and the correction, but listening and reading are what actually teach the language.
Sure, language classes can provide social benefits and feedback. But the real means of learning a language is consistent, ample amounts of listening and reading.
Comprehensible Input: How It Helps Language Learning by 20 Jul 2026
Learning from input does not mean refusing grammar books; the point is to notice patterns, not to master the rules.
Some people think CI means you reject grammar books. I disagree. I often reference grammar materials and find these explanations useful. However, the focus of my learning is not to “master the rules”. Grammar resources simply help me notice and make sense of patterns in the language.
Comprehensible Input: How It Helps Language Learning by 20 Jul 2026
Show 5 more
A beginner cannot learn from material made for native speakers: at the start, authentic media is noise.
If you are starting a language completely from scratch, authentic media is just noise. You’ll absorb very little. You need highly repetitive, simple input.
Comprehensible Input: How It Helps Language Learning by 20 Jul 2026
Past the beginning, learn from whatever you actually care about rather than from material written for learners.
Don’t limit yourself to material designed for language learners. Read and listen to content that you genuinely care about.
Comprehensible Input: How It Helps Language Learning by 20 Jul 2026
Learning a language happens through exposure to language you can mostly understand; classroom drills feel productive and build nothing.
Classroom activities like grammar drills and vocabulary tests feel productive. You are doing something. But none of it builds the network your brain actually needs.
What Is Second Language Acquisition? Said 13 Apr 2026
A person who studies a language for years and cannot speak it was taught the wrong method; it is not a failure of talent or of effort.
Most people hear that story and think: he must have lacked talent, or commitment. I don’t think that’s the right conclusion. I think he was never taught how second language acquisition actually works, and so he spent hundreds of hours doing the wrong things.
What Is Second Language Acquisition? Said 13 Apr 2026
The practical instruction that follows from the research is simple and hard to do: listen and read a great deal.
The practical takeaway from SLA research is both simple and demanding: you need to listen and read a lot.
What Is Second Language Acquisition? Said 13 Apr 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 4 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Mixed on DuoLingo
Duolingo is a fun, easy way into a language and good for daily contact and review, but it lacks depth and real content.
blog.thelinguist.com 29 Mar 2026
Loved LingQ
Having studied over a dozen languages in my lifetime, I can confidently say that LingQ stands out as the most effective tool for language learning.
blog.thelinguist.com 6 Sept 2025
their own
Mixed on Pimsleur
My verdict: Pimsleur is a good icebreaker for a complete beginner, but not something to rely on for long-term progress.
blog.thelinguist.com 8 May 2025
Show 1 more
Mixed on Assimil
Assimil is a well-made course with strength in its design and structure, but it's not a silver bullet. Use it as support, not your only tool.
blog.thelinguist.com 6 Mar 2017
Where they publish
Blog The Linguist His blog on how he learns languages. Has a feed.
Recent
- How to Learn Polish: A Polyglot’s Guide (2026) 30 Oct 2026 TL;DR If you want to learn Polish, know that it’s hard for English speakers, with seven cases, verb aspect and new sounds. But the approach that works for every language works here...
- Is French Hard to Learn? A Polyglot’s Honest Answer 23 Oct 2026 TL;DR French is one of the easier languages for English speakers, mostly because we already share so much vocabulary. What makes it feel hard is that French spelling doesn’t tell you how...
- How Long Does It Take to Learn Japanese? A Polyglot’s Answer (2026) 16 Oct 2026 TL;DR How long does it take to learn Japanese? The US Foreign Service Institute estimates about 2,200 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency. In my experience, the...
Show 9 more
- Is Korean Hard to Learn? My Honest Answer 9 Oct 2026 TL;DR Yes, Korean is hard for English speakers. The US Foreign Service Institute puts it in its hardest group, at about 2,200 hours of study to reach professional working proficiency. The alphabet...
- How I Learned Spanish: 60 Years of Reading, Hitchhiking, and Enjoying the Language 21 Sept 2026 TL;DR My connection to Spanish goes back 60 years, starting with a single university course and a painstaking read-through of a Blasco Ibáñez story. It grew through hitchhiking around Spain in the...
- How I Learned Ukrainian: A Language Journey Through History, Politics, and Curiosity 11 Sept 2026 I’ve spent my life chasing the places where cultures mix. Olive oil on my sushi, wasabi with my French food, a Dutch painter’s print of a café in the south of France...
- How I Learned Cantonese 4 Sept 2026 TL;DR I lived in Hong Kong for two and a half years focused on Mandarin, and my wife is a native Cantonese speaker, but I made almost no effort to learn Cantonese...
- How I Learned Swedish 21 Aug 2026 TL;DR I was born in Sweden and left at five, which gave me an early ear for the language but almost no vocabulary. Decades later, a shift in my lumber export business...
- The Best Way to Learn French (What Actually Worked for Me) 30 Jul 2026 I want to talk about how I learned French, and about the best way to learn French based on what actually happened to me, not what I was taught in school. I...
- Language Chunks Explained: What They Are and Why I Never Study Them Directly 18 Jul 2026 I want to talk about learning languages in chunks. It is a concept many of you are probably already aware of, but I want to explain why I think it matters and...
- 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Learning Languages 7 Jul 2026 After 60 years of learning languages, I find myself thinking about what I would tell my younger self. Not the specific techniques or the tools, those have changed enormously over the decades....
- How to Find Time to Learn a Language: My Daily Routine 23 Jun 2026 I hear it all the time. “I would love to learn Spanish, but I just don’t have the time.” I have been learning languages for most of the last 60 years, almost...
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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Recent
- "Но при всей этой боли и тревоге мы должны ясно понимать главное: основной виновник происходящего – Владимир Путин." 18 Oct 2026 But with all this pain and anxiety, we must clearly understand the main thing: the main culprit of what is happening is Vladimir Putin.
- Softwood lumber amounts to 1% by value of Canada‘s exports to the US, crude oil amounts to 25% by value. 18 Oct 2026
Link verified 23 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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